BALBOA PARK 2015 EFFORT ON HOLD

City funds, approved in November, not yet received

Planning for Balboa Park’s yearlong celebration of its 1915 exposition was abruptly suspended Tuesday when officials discovered city funds for the effort have yet to be received.

Ben Clay, co-chairman of the Balboa Park Centennial Celebration, said Wednesday that $459,000 appropriated by the City Council in November has not been transferred to the host committee’s accounts.

“We’re trying to figure out what’s going on,” Clay said.

Several contracts worth $153,000 have been put on hold until the financial confusion is cleared up, he said.

“At the end of the month, we run out of money,” he said. “We don’t want to go in the red at any point in time.”

The contractors include traffic consultants, public relations and video consultants and the company in charge of producing the event, due to begin Jan. 1, 2015.

Until now, the 2015 committee has been operating with funds appropriated from foundations and the Tourism Marketing District. The total in startup funds from all sources was a little more than $1 million, and about a third of it was granted to park museums for exhibit planning purposes.

“Nobody has told us we were having problems,” Clay said.

He said he learned of the holdup from the committee’s accountants last Thursday, and his board voted Tuesday to suspend the contracts out of an abundance of caution.

The consultants were officially informed to stop work Tuesday afternoon.

The contract suspension came on the same day that Balboa Park lost its biggest financial booster, Irwin Jacobs, who withdrew up to $30 million in support of his plan to remove cars and parking from the center of the park.

Filner opposed Jacobs’ plan but said last week he urged Clay’s committee to “think big” and invite kings, presidents and prime ministers from the around the world to San Diego in 2015.

He gave no indication that Filner had lost confidence in the planning committee.